Juniors steady as gold holds above US$440 per oz.

Junior mining stocks held their own over the shortened trading period Dec. 22-24, before the holiday season kicked in. The TSX Venture Exchange index saw an increase of 44.76 points, or 2.5%, to 1781.44 from the beginning of the trading period.

Spot gold closed pretty much even at US$442.50 per oz. in New York on Christmas Eve. Gold’s strength is a reflection of sustained weakness in the U.S. dollar, which continued to hit new lows against the euro. Silver regained some ground, closing 2% higher at US$6.95 per oz.

Meanwhile, platinum fell to US$840 per oz. and the value of palladium decreased by $11 to close at US$171 per oz.

The most active stock during the trading period was Tyler Resources. The Calgary-based junior traded 6.9 million shares and reached a 52-week high to close at $1.04 — up 48.5%, or 34.5. The company has been encountering strong grades in a skarn-breccia section of its Bahuerachi porphyry project in Mexico. It didn’t hurt that the company was featured as one of John Embry’s top picks on ROBTV, owing to what he said was great potential for a large-scale deposit at Bahuerachi. Another 6,100 metres of drilling will resume after the Christmas break.

Second most active was Vancouver-based Sennen Resources, which continued to trade heavily. On volume exceeding 6.2 million shares, the company reached another 52-week high to close up 12, to 64. Sennen has reached a joint-venture agreement with an Australian coal company to finance and develop the Middlemount, Collingwood and Onaview deposits in Queensland.

Some of the excitement surrounding Dianor Resources seems to have waned. The company’s trading volume shrunk to 2.4 million, compared with the 17.6 million traded over the previous session. The company regained some ground and closed up a nickel to 31. Dianor recently discovered G-10 garnets among diamond indicator minerals in till samples on its Cluster project in Ontario.

Vancouver-based Entre Gold traded 2.2 million shares and tacked on another 22 to close at $1.48. The company has a majority interest in the Lookout Hill property in Mongolia, which surrounds Ivanhoe Mines‘ Hugo copper-gold deposit. Entre recently appointed a senior broker with experience in funding and development of junior companies to its board.

Murgor Resources also featured in the most-active list. The company closed up 5.5, to 26, on a volume of 1.7 million shares just before being halted by securities regulators pending an announcement. The company has been drilling on the Eagle River joint venture with Freewest Resources in the Barry-Urban belt of northwestern Quebec.

Coal miner Pine Valley Mining was up by $1.37 to $6.95. The company began producing coal from northeastern British Columbia earlier this year and recently began commissioning for an increase in production at Willow Creek to 110,000 tonnes per month. Capital costs for Pine Valley’s projects under construction have increased by $2.3 million from October 2004 estimates.

Meanwhile, Arizona Star gave back 20 to close at $6.79. The company has been embroiled in a power struggle followed by a share swap bid from its larger affiliate, Bema Gold, worth $7.01 per Arizona Star share.